This morning, for the sheer fun of using my camera, I thought I’d document a little of what goes into a reasonably typical morning round here. Nothing earth shattering but a slice of mid-January life.
For the last couple of weeks Stephen has been doing all of the morning chores on the farm, there are lots of reasons for this but one of mine is that it gives me the chance to rustle up a hearty breakfast for us all before the day begins. I also like the fact that this breakfast can be cooked while I’m still in my pj’s rather than the layers of clothing required to head outside first thing!
The first chore of the morning (after making the pancake batter ready for breakfast) is to process the milk. This involves sieving and filtering it to get out any hair or particles that we don’t want to sup down. Once it’s filtered it goes into a jar, is marked with the date and popped in the fridge. Then I clean the milking machine (3 times) usually at the same time as cooking pancakes.
Speaking of pancakes…
These pancakes are the unsoaked version of this recipe as I am often not organized enough to remember the night before. Last night (instead of soaking oats) I made fresh butter from our raw cream and that went on the top of the pancakes along with a good dollop of maple syrup. If I’m lucky this will keep the boys going until at least 10.30 and maybe even lunchtime if they steal some of Daddy’s!
After a goodly amount of being threatened with sticks gently cajoled with fluffy rabbits, the boys will finally be dressed and ready for school. Today, upon request, we started with science and this experiment.
The boys were so in love with this experiment! 3 pans of milk and colour later I had to drag them away to do our other school, which today revolved around board game frolics. We don’t do homeschool via board games every day (I wish) but having triumphantly finished our maths chapter and spelling level a celebration was warranted.
Before that, while the boys rejoiced in their science fun, I put together our day’s bread ready to rise through the sunny morning. I also cooked a second pot of beef stock from some of the bones we got in our beef pack, purchased from our beef raising neighbour. I try not to do major kitchen projects during the week (like cheese making) but there is usually some broth/stew/soup/cake on the go each day along with regular bread making as and when it’s needed.
I’m at the pleasant point of being able to juggle different kitchen tasks along with our every day work without it feeling terribly onerous. A pot of bubbling broth, a bowl of slowly rising bread, yoghurt happily culturing away, a soft cheese setting up, all of these require little tending but provide the back bone of our larder, allowing for other snacks and meals to happen. At this point running out of broth would pretty much call a halt to half my meal plan for the week!
But enough of this and on with the board games…
Huwyl chose one of our cooperative games to start with, Neirin went uber classic with a jolly couple of rounds of Guess Who (of which I am undisputed Universal Champion of the Universe) and I chose Junior Scrabble because, yes, I am that cool. Looking at the box of our not new Scrabble I noticed the picture of the little girl imagining herself as an astronomer and I wondered if a modern game would show something like that. Firstly she wasn’t wearing an eye watering shade of fuscia, a current no-no if the clothing stores are to be believed, and I can’t imagine a new board game endorsing a little girl to wear a bun, glasses and indulge in too many books, not when she could be shopping or some such. But I digress.
So there you have it, a quiet Thursday morning, nothing too strenuous or exciting, a pleasant trot through the morning like so many other mornings. And yet, of course, not like any other at all.
Emmalina and Her Unfeasibly Large Bonnet 